Notes From All Over -- Pre-Market Edition -- August 21, 2020

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Fast and furious:

• Definition of insanity::
• I'm beginning to like this guy: this is the second time in about as many weeks that I've linked an article by this oilprice contributor; Saudi Arabia refuses to learn from its two failed oil price wars;
• Wuhan flu:  
• NYC:I'm not following this story very closely any more, but the graph at this link is amazing; I knew it was bad in NYC, but I did not know it was that bad; link here for the graph;
  
• Mass transit is dead: or at least nearly killed public transport; over at oilprice; they must be reading the blog;
• Govenors:
• Lied: I'm shocked! Shocked! California governor failed to take promised pay cut, after ordering state workers' pay to be cut 10%; google it;
• Disappointed; well, actually he's disappointed in his state's utilities. Say what?
• Tired: no matter how Goodyear spins it, I won't be buying Goodyear tires, never have, never will; Goodyear CEO calls Trump; says it was all a mistake; not his fault; google it;
• The Magnificent Seven:
• 777: if any of us are still afloat in this market, it's because seven stocks are doing very, very well; tech's magnificent seven are worth $7.7 trillion. Quick: name the seven. Hint: one of them is the name of a fruit; one is the parent company of the #1 website; one of them is an on-line retailer; one use to have a computer monopoly, then hired Steve Balmer; one knows more about ou than you know about yourself; one sells cars; and, one sells movies. To put their worth into perspective, let's go to Paul R. La Monica:
• Russell 2000, America's smaller publicly traded companies: total market value -- $1.9 trillion (which by the way is less than $2 trillion which seems to be the new bar)
• the tech's magnificent seven: $7.7 trillion
• AAPL: I have a pet peeve with CNBC when it comes to AAPL; actually two; if I get caught up, I will talk about those two pet peeves;
• must read article on iPhone 12 -- which has not yet been announced, much less brought to market, and yet AAPL continues to soar; if it's been announced, I haven't seen it; I could have missed it;
• used iPhones will significantly expand Apple's share in emerging markets; two words I like to see in a headline: "Apple" and "expanding"; okay, and a third, "significantly." in almost any order: "Apple significantly expanding": expanding Apple, significantly"; significantly, Apple expanding;" you get the picture: